Wrongfully Charged Cop Campaigning Against Glasgow In Will County

Brian Dorian, a Lynwood police officer, talks about being wrongly charged as the so-called "Honeybee Killer" in October 2010. He is suing Will County authorities for $10 million. (Credit: CBS)

JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) — The man who is trying to unseat Will County State’s Attorney Jim Glasgow is getting help campaigning from a police officer wrongly accused of murder by Glasgow two years ago.

WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports Republican Dave Carlson is running against Glasgow in the November election.

“Why am I doing this? Because of that record. Sixteen years of blunders, mistakes, and screw-ups, for lack of a better term,” he said.

In particular, he pointed to the so-called “Honeybee Killer” case in 2010, when Lynwod Police Officer Brian Dorian was arrested, accused of a two-state shooting spree that left one man dead and two others injured.

The charges were dropped after he spent nearly a week behind bars, when evidence – including computer and cell phone records, and shopping receipts – backed up his alibi, and proved he was somewhere else at the time of the shootings.

Carlson was Dorian’s lawyer, and Dorian is now campaigning for him, blaming Glasgow for his wrongful arrest. He’s been knocking on doors in Will County, saying his arrest was the result of a rush to judgment by Glasgow.

“He got up two years ago and called me law enforcement’s worst nightmare. He was wrong. Do you want to know what law enforcement’s worst nightmare is, as far as the rank-and-file are concerned? Our worst nightmare is having somebody in a position of power and authority who has no business being in that position,” Dorian said.

Glasgow’s spokesman, Charles Pelkie, said “This is really more about this candidate misrepresenting and mischaracterizing an entire investigation, and then exploiting his own client to gain some kind of a political advantage.”

Pelkie said the evidence against Dorian was compelling.

“All of that evidence was presented to a circuit judge, who reviewed it carefully, and determined that there was probable cause to sign an arrest warrant, and to take Mr. Dorian into custody,” Pelkie said.

After dropping the charges against Dorian two years ago, Glasgow defended the initial arrest, saying the evidence at the time pointed to him as the gunman.

“He is a police officer, and if he were in our shoes, and he had a suspect under these circumstances, Brian Dorian would have acted the same way,” Glasgow said at the time.

Dorian said, “If he can live with himself, that’s his business, but when you start hurting innocent people, now that’s my business.”

Carlson said it’s telling that prosecutors in Lake County, Ind. – where one of the victims of the shooting spree was wounded – never charged Dorian.

“The prosecutor in Lake County, Indiana, never charged Brian; with the same facts, same crime, same evidence,” Carlson said. “That right there speaks volumes as to the motivation of the prosecutor in Will County.”

Dorian has filed a $10 million federal lawsuit against Will County authorities, alleging false arrest.

Mike Krauser

Mike Krauser has been a reporter, anchor, producer, writer, managing editor and news director during a career that started in Chicago in the late 1980's.
His first love is reporting, "Telling stories on the radio," he says, "doesn't feel like...